The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Summer basketball league heating up at Pat Kidney Sports Complex
MIDDLETOWN — Who’s got next on the courts at the Pat Kidney Sports Complex?
On Saturdays through the end of August, it’s the teams participating in the Detroit Hunter Summer Basketball League.
The courts continue to be a popular spot for pickup games throughout the week, but beginning this past Saturday, they are reserved for a firstofitskind Middletown outdoor league for boys and girls as young as 10 through highschool age.
The idea of a summer league was conceived and realized by Adam Brown, Lorenzo Marshall, Dean Wilborn and Shawon Moncrief. Brown and Moncrief run the WE R1 AAU organization. Brown is a local guy — he grew up in East Hampton, played at Xavier and then at Sacred Heart University.
Brown said his organization oversees teams and runs clinics and basketball training sessions. Along with Moncrief, he regularly looks for ways to bring organized basketball into communities like Middletown. This is their first experience pulling together an outdoor league.
“A lot of the kids aren’t really familiar with playing outdoors,” Brown said. “A lot of adults I talk to, it brings us back to when we were kids. Pat Kidney was always a location and destination for basketball. All moms and dads in Middletown know that.
“We are trying to recreate that summer basketball atmosphere. With this league, you get the true feeling that it’s summertime. Kids are waiting for the breeze to go by before they shoot their foul shots. It’s different and it’s fun.”
Marshall is deeply involved in the Middletown scene through his work at the Middlesex Chamber of Commerce. He’s also a high school basketball official who provided officials for the Hunter league. Wilborn, too, is a referee and the supervisor of recreation for the city, who got the ball rolling toward making the facility available.
“Dean and Lorenzo are a big part of pulling this together,” Brown said. “When the courts were done over (two years ago), we envisioned what could be.”
“We wanted to expose kids in Middletown and beyond to the town and this facility,” said Marshall, who was a major player behind the naming of the courts for Hunter and Cleve Lowman, who were big names in city recreation circles in the 1970s.
Over the weekend, five boys games were played from midmorning to late afternoon. Players from Middletown High, Xavier and Vinal Tech are participating in the league, Marshall said. Also in the league are teams from New London, Bridgeport, Waterbury and Enfield. Ultimately, he said, he’d like the league to be heavy on Middletown youth and just a few outoftown teams.
This coming weekend, there will be two games for girls in grades seven and eight, with boys games to resume the following Saturday. Brown hopes more girls have interest and the number of teams increase sooner than later.
“Hopefully people will see them out there playing. These two teams we have now are willing to come out from outside the city, and hopefully this builds more interest in the league,” he said.
While he said most organizations charge teams up to $600 to play in a league, the cost is $275 for a team in the Detroit Hunter League.
“That covers the cost of Tshirts and referees,” he said. “Lorenzo is the biggest part of all of this. He is getting referees willing to work for a bit less to try to get this thing going. Without that, we wouldn’t have been able to do it at the price we wanted.”
Brown’s “next project” is bringing travel basketball to Middletown for residents only.
In the meantime, summertime means getting outdoors and playing basketball at Pat Kidney. The weekend of Aug. 2425 is reserved for the league playoffs and championship games.
“I’ve been doing this for over 10 years, so the relationships I’ve built have been really positives ones,” Brown said. “We hope to build on this and have Middletown as a focal point for summer basketball for people in the region.”
SERRA EVENT RAISES $20K
Friday at Portland Golf Course, a field of 156 enjoyed the first edition of the Thomas J. Serra Memorial Tournament. There was a waiting list. If you knew Tom Serra, that comes as no surprise.
A crowd of 200 turned out for the posttournament dinner. There was a raffle and silent auction. By night’s end, around $20,000 had been raised to benefit two scholarships, one each for a Middletown High and Vinal Tech student, and to fill a general fund in Serra’s names that will aid local students in need.
“There were people who came out that knew dad that I haven’t seen in 20 years,” Jason, his eldest son, said.
Tom Serra died in February. His nearly 50year legacy of service to Middletown covered the realms of education, politics and athletics.
“Support the community — that’s what he was all about,” Chris, his youngest son, said. “And he loved reunions. This day was a healing thing for us.”
Next year’s tournament will be held July 24 at Portland GC.
MHS PICKS BAND LEADERS
Middletown High has revealed its leaders for the marching band and dance team for the coming school year. Daphne Ciarcia, Evan Davis and Michael Flynn are the drum majors. Madison Dube, Sophia Manos and Matthew Nenninger are the band captains.
The band’s section leaders are Maya Alicki, Logan Biernat, Noah Blake, Jacob Chlebowski, Ashley Chuang, Trevor Drescher, Cierra Freer, Mitchell Hart, Sam Kinney, Matt Lombardo, Teagan Murawski, Nicole Nenninger and Matthew Rosenblum.
Serina Desena and Meghan Ouelette have been chosen as dance team captains.
You can see all in action at Middletown’s first home football game of the season, Sept. 13 (7 p.m.) against Bristol Eastern.
THIS AND THAT
⏩ Back to summer league basketball for a second. Adam Brown said he arrived at the courts at 9 a.m. and the games wouldn’t have gotten underway on time without the work of Todd D’Aquila and Brian Young, the superintendent of parks. “Those two guys were very accommodating, very helpful,” he said.
⏩ As former Middletown High Tigers coach Tom LaBella used to say, if you want to improve your game, go play ball at Pat Kidney.
⏩ What an awful weekend to be a fan of the Yankees AND the Giants. The GMen are supposed to be bad this season and they will, but losing three receivers in three days? There will be no pressure on Eli Manning because he has no one to throw the ball to. Besides, the over/under for when he is unseated by Daniel Jones is Week 8.
The Yankees desperately need starting pitching and they need to go big by Wednesday’s trade deadline. The Red Sox just might have a chance in the AL East after all.
⏩ My prediction for the NFC East’s order of finish: 1. Eagles; 2. Cowboys; 3. Redskins; 4. Giants. Dallas won the division last season. Surprisingly, there hasn’t been a repeat division winner since 2004, when the Eagles won the last of four straight titles.
⏩ Speaking of Dallas, I liked the great Everson Walls’ tweeted take on Zeke Elliott, who is holding out for a new contract with two years still left on his rookie deal. “I’m all about a Bruthuh getting his money, but can Zeke just give me one incidentfree calendar year before you ask me to tear up the last 2 years on your contract? How about just 1 off/season?! Damn!”
⏩ “Once Upon A Time … In Hollywood” was a great film (but not Quentin Tarantino’s best). The pairing of DiCaprio and Pitt was on a par with Redford and Newman. Every scene they shared was memorable and cool. For Tarantino though, to me, his best work remains “Jackie Brown.”
⏩ On an unrelated note, it was unfortunate to hear of Faye Dunaway’s firing by the producers of the play “Tea at Five” in New York. Dunaway, 78, reportedly “slapped and threw things” at crew members who were trying to put on her wig.
It got me thinking of my favorites movies in which Dunaway has starred, and there are five — “Network”; “Bonnie and Clyde”; “Chinatown”; “Three Days of the Condor”; and “The Towering Inferno.” Happy trails, Fay.
⏩ Attendance at major league games is down 2 percent from this time last year. Through July 21, the Blue Jays (28.7 percent) have seen the biggest drop. The Mariners, Orioles, Tigers, Royals, Nationals and Giants also have experienced doubledigit drops in average attendance.
The Nationals stick out because they are in the race in the NL East. Sure, the Nats lost Bryce Harper to free agency, but they have been hot for two months and currently tied in the wildcard race. And yet they’re down 11.6 percent at the box office.
⏩ Baseball fans should get familiar with the acronym ABS, short for Automated BallStrike System. Or, roboumpiring. The independent Atlantic League will use the ABS to determine balls and strikes for the remainder of its season.
Cody Bellinger of the Dodgers was ejected from a game last week for the first time in his career. Two pitches well outside the zone were called strikes (he K’d looking, of course) and angered him enough to be tossed. MLB, meet ABS. One day.